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)"Who The Hell Is Marcel Lefebvre?"
Arm The Spirit (ats@locust.cic.net)
Wed, 5 Feb 97 14:26:01 -0800
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|| * -- SPECIAL - * -- February 04, 1997 -- * - EDITION -- * ||
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* SPECIAL EDITION * _____
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* D E M A N A R C H I E * VOLUME 3, NUMBER 2 - FEBRUARY 1997
_________________________________________________________________
AFIB EDITOR'S NOTE: Over the next several days, I'll be posting articles
from the current issue of _Demanarchie_, Quebec's premier anarchist
newspaper. E-mail sent to Antifa Info-Bulletin will be forwarded to the
Demanarchie collective. Part I (2/03/97): 1. Editorial - Neo-Liberalism
Hits Quebec 2. Happy Birthdays to You! 3. Greek Anarchists Freed! 4.
University Supports Free Speech for Fascists Not Their Opponents Part II
(2/04/97): 1. Who the Hell is Marcel Lefebvre? Part III (2/05/97): 1. On
the Bankruptcy of Left-Wing Nationalism in Quebec ----- DEMANARCHIE CP
32100 Montreal, Quebec Canada, H2L 4Y5 ----- The following articles are
from Demanarchie V.3 #2. Demanarchie is a bilingual (French & English)
anarchist newspaper published once every two months by a collective in
Quebec. Subscriptions to Demanarchie are available for $12 for 6
issues. -----
_________________________________________________________________
WHO THE HELL IS MARCEL LEFEBVRE?
_________________________________________________________________
Right-wing Catholics continue to play an important role in the Quebec
fascist milieu. In fact, along with "French Canadian" nationalism,
traditional Roman Catholicism is one of the defining features of the
far-right in this province. Some reactionary Catholics in Quebec have even
split from the Vatican, which they view as being too moderate. These
schismatics - the term literally means "splitter" - work within
international networks that include racists and fascists from Europe and
the United States. TO THE RIGHT OF JOHN PAUL II? Pope John Paul II,
president-for-life of the Roman Catholic Church, is widely viewed as being
favourable to that faith's right-wing. He has made a point of publicly
re-affirming his church's opposition to women's rights, queer rights and
the rights of the dispossessed. Yet to some Catholics, the pope is being
manipulated by the enemies of the church; to his less charitable critics
on the right, he is a conscious minion of the Antichrist, who has overseen
the continuing takeover the Christianity by an evil cabal of Jews,
Freemasons and Communists. These Catholics believe that the church was
taken over by pro-communist, Jewish, Protestant, Zionist, Satanic, and/or
Freemason forces at a series of meetings of all the world's bishops known
as the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, that ran from 1962 to 1965.
It was at these meetings that Roman Catholicism toned down its age-old war
of attrition against the world's other religions and attempted to bring
several of its own rites up to date. Among other things, the mass that had
been elaborated at the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563, known as
the Tridentine Mass, was changed and the use of languages other than Latin
was approved. In the 1970s and early eighties, those Catholic hardliners
who looked back fondly on the days of the inquisition were active in a
variety of organizations, the most prominent of them all being the Society
of St Pius X. The history of the Society is inseparable from that of its
late founder, Bishop Marcel Lefebvre. Active in the theocratic
organization Cite Catholique in the 1960s, Lefebvre felt called upon to
denounce and resist the changes brought about by Vatican II. Most hated
were decrees that grudgingly accepted people's freedom of conscience and
that raised bishops' status, mandating the creation of national bishops'
organizations which brought about a degree of decentralization within the
church and reduced the power of a clique of conservative Italian mandarins
who had become dominant within the Vatican. Pope Paul VI, blamed by
Lefebvre for the changes in the church, was eager to appease the
reactionary cleric, so in 1970 he was granted permission to found his
Society in Econe, Switzerland. Rather than calming him down though, this
seemed to encourage Lefebvre in his attacks against what he called
"modernist" errors coming out of Rome. Things escalated in 1976 when
Lefebvre accused the Catholic hierarchy of heresy. His Society was
officially banned, and he was forbidden from ordaining students studying
at its seminary. When he ignored this ban and ordained them anyway, the
Pope hit him with a suspens a divinis - a punishment that meant he could
no longer give sacraments or celebrate mass. Around the world Lefebvre's
supporters rallied around him, often refusing to say the mass as it was
elaborated during Vatican II but rather hearkening back to the old
Tridentine rite. Priests who celebrated the old mass were often kicked out
of their churches by the local bishop. When John Paul II became pope he
tried to bring the traditionalists back into the fold. He passed a special
rule allowing mass to be said according to the old custom as long as the
local bishop gave his permission. This did tempt many Catholics back to
the church but Lefebvre remained independent. The mass was just a symbol
for him: he didn't want the church to tolerate him, he wanted the church
to return to its old burn- them-at-the-stake intolerant self. In 1987 the
Vatican appointed Canadian Cardinal Edouard Gagnon as a mediator - a
decision that thrilled the Lefebvrists, who claimed that of all the
cardinals Gagnon was the most sympathetic to their cause. But while he did
come close, Gagnon was finally unable to broker an agreement between
Lefebvre and the pope. The former was convinced that the
Freemason-Satanist- Pinko-Jews had taken over, and he was not willing to
surrender his Society's autonomy. In 1988 he took four of the Society's
priests and turned them into bishops - despite having been warned to do no
such thing by John Paul. He was excommunicated almost immediately. OUTSIDE
OF THE CHURCH By this point Lefebvre had already acquired a large
following among right-wing Catholics who cared little what the Vatican
might say. His organization controlled hundreds of churches, residences,
and schools in several dozen countries, and had acquired financial support
from remnants of Europe's old aristocracy. The Society had also earned a
good reputation amongst butchers and fascists around the world. Always the
man of principle, Lefebvre had spoken out in favour of military
dictatorships in Africa and South America. Way back in 1976, during a
fiery mass in Lille, France, Lefebvre identified the enemy: "The Council
(Vatican II) consummated the marriage between Church and Revolution...
only bastards will be born of the adulterous union ... We cannot dialogue
with freemasons and communists, because you don't dialogue with the
Devil!" There is plenty of evidence of what the bishop would like to do
with communists and freemasons though; at Lille that day he also shared
his views on the Argentinian dictatorship which was at that very moment
torturing and executing anyone even suspected of being a "subversive".
Lefebvre said that this bloodthirsty regime was a "principled government
of order, an authority that is tidying things up, that stops cutthroats
from killing people. Suddenly the economy is getting better and the
workers have work and they can go home knowing that they won't be attacked
by someone who wanted them to go on strike when they didn't want to go on
strike." [1] Lefebvre not only supported fascism in the Third World, but
actively promoted it in Europe, too. The Spanish translation of his book
"I Accuse the Council," was launched at the headquarters of the New Forces
Party - a Francoist fascist party. At this event Lefebvre was accompanied
by Blas Pinar, the NFP's president. [2] During the 1985 French election
campaign Lefebvre publicly encouraged Catholics to vote for Jean-Marie Le
Pen, explaining that his ideal was "a government that applies real
Catholic principles, like Franco and Salazar did." Need it be added that
these statements were made in an interview he gave to the Italian magazine
Secolo - the organ of the MSI, Italy's oldest fascist party. [3] At no
point did Lefebvre tone down the rhetoric. He merely became more and more
explicit. In 1986 he criticized the pope's meeting at Assise with leaders
from the world's other religions, which he said "encourages the false
religions to pray to their false gods." [4] In 1989 he warned a gathering
of traditionalists about Moslem immigrants, saying that "It is your wives,
your daughters, your children who will kidnapped and brought to those
secret places like in Casablanca." [5] In 1990, less than a year before
his death, he claimed in an interview with the official magazine of the
National Front that any Catholic opposition to the maintenance of a nun's
residence at the former Auschwitz concentration camp was being instigated
by Jews. [6] IN QUEBEC While the Society of St Pius X is most active in
Europe, it maintains residences and churches in over 40 non-European
countries, including most of the Americas. The headquarters of the
Society's Canadian branch have been located in Shawinigan since the 1970s.
There are 26 Lefebvrist churches in Canada, eight of which are in Quebec.
There are roughly a dozen priests active within the Society in Quebec. The
Society also runs a primary and high school, l'ecole Saint-Famille. [7]
According to Fr. Jacques Emily, the Lefebvrist's Canadian leader since
1983, roughly 1000 people regularly attend mass at the Society's churches,
and the group receives donations from three or four times as many people
across the country. While these small numbers show that the Society has
little direct impact on the official Roman Catholic church, and they
certainly have little effect on the larger body politic, the Lefebvrists
nevertheless remain wed to the far-right. And in Quebec, where the
far-right tends to be unanimous in its Catholicism and hostility to
Vatican II, the Society has been able to maintain some presence outside of
its own small circles. Furthermore, the Society has occasionally made
headlines with its public declarations so much out of sync with Quebec
society in general and mainstream Catholicism in particular that they are
difficult to ignore. In 1989, for instance, one of the Society's four
bishops, Richard Williamson, delivered a virulently racist sermon while
touring Quebec. Williamson, who runs a Lefebvrist seminary in Winona,
Minnesota, was speaking at Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes church in Sherbrooke when
he stated that "Not one Jew was killed in the gas chambers. It's a lie...
the Jews invented the Holocaust so that we would kneel before them and
accept their state of Israel... the governments don't touch the Jews but
they persecute the Zundels who fight for the truth." [8] When a complaint
was lodged under the hate laws, the RCMP found that there was no basis to
charge Williamson because he "wasn't inciting violence". The bishop
himself was unapologetic, claiming that "The church is going badly because
of the Protestants, the Freemasons, the Communists, the media and the
Jews.... I don't believe that 6 million Jews were killed (in the
Holocaust), it's a physical impossibility." [9] THE CERCLE D'ETUDES DES
JEUNES CATHOLIQUES TRADITIONALISTES The Lefebvrists do not simply stew in
their own theological juices, but engage in a certain degree of outreach
amongst other Catholics. Probably towards this end, in June 1993 the
Society set up a study group at Laval University in Ste-Foy, the Cercle
d'etudes des jeunes catholiques traditionalistes. The CEJCT organized
lectures by far-right luminaries from Canada, Europe and the United
States, many of which took place on the university campus, until its
pastor, Fr. Roscoe, left for Switzerland in 1995. While it was
functioning, the Cercle benefited from a degree of aid from the
university's chaplaincy services, i.e. free meeting space, photocopies,
typing plus the prestige of being able to use University symbols on its
propaganda. For your personal edification, what follows is a partial list
of people who spoke at CEJCT events between 1993 and 1995 (an asterisk
indicates that the individual is also the author of one or more articles
in the CEJCT's newsletter Carillon Catholique): + Michel Berger, a retired
admiral, is a leading light with Action Familiale et Scolaire, itself a
front for Ictus, perhaps France's most powerful reactionary Catholic
organization. [10] Its goal is to encourage the growth of a political
Catholic movement, with the eventual goal of rolling back all of the
social gains that have been made since Marie Antoinette lost her head in
the French Revolution. Needless to say, leading members of Ictus,
including de Lassus, have made sympathetic comments about the National
Front; like Lefebvre they see it as Catholics' best bet in the French
elections. Berger tours Quebec with Baron de Lassus (see next) about once
a year, regularly speaking in Church's and religious establishments in
Sherbrooke, Montreal and Drummondville. [11] AFS has published books about
how dangerous Moslems are, as well as about how the Church was very nice
to native people in North America during the conquest of this continent. +
Baron Arnaud de Lassus*, the leader of Action Familiale et Scolaire (see
above). [12] De Lassus is an "expert" on freemasonry, which he
characterizes as a fanatical anti- Catholic conspiracy that works in
alliance with Jews. [13] Although he has remained loyal to the Vatican, he
shares Lefebvre's view that the National Front is Catholics' best bet in
the French elections (as do many other loyal Catholics, it should be
said). [14] + Bernard Lugan, who in 1993 was a member of the National
Front's scientific council. [15] Lugan has also lectured at the Centre
Charlier, [16] a Catholic centre in France founded in 1979 by brothers
Andre and Henri Charlier. Great admirers of Charles Maurras, the Charlier
brothers' intend their centre to be a starting point for a "Christian and
national counter-offensive against the genocide that is afflicting France
and the French." [17] + Fr. Lorans, a European official of the Society. In
1988 he stated that "Le Pen stands for principles that are similar to
ours... as to his understanding of abortion, it is the same as
Lefebvre's." [18] + Louis-Michel Guilbault*, the editor of (and author of
almost all the articles in) Le Lys Blanc, an opinionated magazine from
Sorel. Typical articles of his deal with the history of the French
aristocracy (he is an ardent monarchist), the supposed connections between
Freemasonry and Jewish organizations like B'nai B'rith, the reasons why
fascism is a good political system as long as it doesn't turn pagan, and
"the correct attitude for Catholics to hold towards Jews" (answer: be on
your guard!). I can't decide which is my favourite, his one anti-Nazi
article (it was a pagan movement led by Jews and thoroughly anti-Catholic)
or a hagiography of Adrien Arcand, the leader of Canada's Nazi movement in
the 1930s (but presumably not himself a Jewish pagan)... + Jean-Claude
Dupuis*, for the past three years the leading light in the Cercle Jeune
Nation, Quebec's most well-known "intellectual" fascist group. Dupuis was
the editor of the Cahiers de Jeune Nation from its first issue in 1993 up
until its last in 1995. [19] He has written favourably about Le Pen on
several occasions, and is known to work closely with Pierre Trepannier,
the University of Montreal's resident pro-fascist historian, and the
clerical-fascist Ralliement Provincial des Parents de Quebec. Dupuis is
also a member of the racist Centre d'information nationale Robert Rumilly
[20] and has worked with this group to organize speaking engagements for
Arnaud de Lassus and Michel Berger across the province. [21] Dupuis and
other members of Cercle Jeune Nation have also spoken at the Society of
Pius X's Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes Church in Sherbrooke. + Gerry Matatics, an
American loose cannon presently vacillating between official Catholicism
and outcast traditionalist groups like the Society. Matatics was once a
Presbyterian minister well known for his attacks on the Catholic Church
but since his conversion in 1986 he has been an ardent promoter of the
most reactionary Catholic inanities, and has recently been flirting with
those tiny traditionalist groups that see even the Lefebvrists as being
too moderate! [22] + Thomas Molnar*, a university professor from Brussels.
Exceptional for Catholic fascists, Molnar even collaborated with the
Groupement de recherche et d'etudes sur la civilisation europeenne (GRECE)
and wrote a book with the latter's founder Alain de Benoist. [23] It
should be noted that most GRECists are anti-Christian, believing Jesus-
worship to be too tainted with non-European influences like egalitarianism
and pacifism (!) and preferring a kind of virile racist paganism. [24]
Molnar is also on the editorial board of Present, [25] a French fascist
newspaper. When he addressed the CEJCT in 1994 his lecture was also
printed in the Cahiers de Jeune Nation. + Claude Polin*, a professor at
the Sorbonne who is active in anti-communist and monarchist groups in
France. Polin has also spoken at several conferences organized by the
Cercle Renaissance [26] and the Institut d'Etude de la Desinformation,
[27] two ultra-conservative organizations whose membership includes
leading members of the European Christian Right, as well as retired
military officers and a certain number of officials from the National
Front and similar parties. Indeed, Polin is himself a member of the
National Front's scientific council. [28] + Fr. Marcel Nault, an
occasional contributor to The Fatima Crusader magazine. [29] This
publication is full of conspiracy theories and reprinted articles from
John Birch Society publications. Its assistant editor Father Paul Leonard
has also had his writings printed in Carillon Catholique. [30] + Jean
Viguerie, a professor at the University of Lille who has worked with
Action Familiale et Scoalire as well as the Centre Charlier and its
affiliate, the Centre Montmauriol. [31] -DMT ENDNOTES 1. "Politique
d'abord? Politique aussi," by S. Mailard, L'Actualite Religieuse avril
1988, p. 15 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. J.Y. Camus & R. Monzat, Les Droites
Nationales et Radicales en France. 5. Ibid., in 1990 a Paris court fined
him the equivilent of almost $1000 US for racial slander against Moslems
(Agence France Presse, 13 juillet 1990) 6. Ibid. 7. "Quelque 250 fideles
preferent encore la messe en latin," by Louise Leduc, La Presse 19 juillet
1993. 8. "La GRC ne porte pas d'accusation contre l'eveque Richard
Williamson," by Lynda Baril, La Presse 15 avril 1989 9. Ibid. One year
later, at the ordination of thirteen new Lefebvrist priests in Econe,
Williamson praised what he called Lefebvre's "beautiful racism" which was
going to "create a new race of priests." (Agence France-Presse, 30 juin
1990) 10. Golias #27-28, automne 1991, pp. 125-128 11. "Jeune Nation:
Quelques jalons pour l'histoire d'une organisation nationaliste de droite
au Quebec," by Francois Dumas (president of Cercle Jeune Nation), Cahiers
de Jeune Nation #3, novembre 1992, p. 23 12. Golias op cit., p. 128 13.
Connaissance Elementaire de la Franc-Maconnerie, Arnaud de Lassus, Action
Familiale et Scolaire, pp. 93-97 14. Golias, op. cit. 15. Ibid., p. 112
16. Ibid. 17. Ibid., p. 106 18. "La politique d'extreme-droite de Mgr
Lefebvre," by Yves Casgrain, Le Devoir 27 juillet 1988 19. For a synopsis
of Dupuis' work as editor of the journal, see his article "Bilan des
Cahiers de Jeune Nation," in Cahiers de Jeune nation #12, septembre 1995
20. Minutes of meeting of the Centre d'information nationale dated
Wednesday, February 17th (no year given - most likeley 1993). Dupuis is
listed as being the the CIN's board of directors. 21. Francois Dumas op.
cit. 22. "Habemus Papum?" by Karl Keating, This Rock July/August 1995 23.
Visages de la Nouvelle Droite: le GRECE et son histoire; Anne-Marie
Duranton-Crabol, Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques
1988, p.167 and 252 24. Ibid., and Golias, op cit. pp. 120-124 25. Golias,
op cit. p. 103 26. Ibid., p. 178 27. Ibid., p. 184 28. "Le Front National:
devant et derriere," by Louis-Michel Guilbault, Le Lys Blanc p. 34 29. See
The Fatima Crusader, #36, #46 and #47 30. "La Messe Traditionnelle" and
"Le Decret Quo Primum" in Carillon Catholique #5 septembre 1994 31. Golias
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Arm The
Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist information collective based in
Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of material, including
political prisoners, national liberation struggles, armed communist
resistance, anti-fascism, the fight against patriarchy, and more. We
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magazine and bulletins called Arm The Spirit. For more information,
contact:
Arm The Spirit P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada
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